Category Archives: Bush

UPDATED (10/21/023): Gaza And The Meaning Of Mens Rea, Malice Aforethought, Or Intent

Bush, Ethics, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Israel, Just War, Justice, Middle East, Morality, Russia, War

If you know in advance that you will be killing thousands of civilians; you have, attached to your actions, malice aforethought, or mens rea, aka intent ~ilana

From the Ukraine-Russia conflict’s inception; your columnist wrote many an essay  (https://www.ilanamercer.com/2022/03/uncle-sam-still-king-invaders-ukraine-realpolitik-wests-failure/) motivating against the Neocons, Neolibs and NATO Inching Us Closer To Nuclear War With Russia, via the Ukraine proxy war.

The rejection by Joe and his Uniparty accomplices of diplomacy, framed by myself as realpolitik, was my focus. “It’s Biblical, Zelensky,” I urged. “A Leader Who Fails To Haggle For The Lives Of His People” is a failed leader.

https://www.ilanamercer.com/2022/03/biblical-zelensky-leader-fails-haggle-lives-people-failed/

I vehemently now protest the greenlighting of the razing of Gaza by Joe Biden and his Uniparty accomplices.

About “intent,” a bedrock of Western judicial philosophy and Jurisprudence, I said the following on the Hard Truth podcast last Tues (Oct. 10)  (https://rumble.com/v3oicx4-hamas-israel-and-the-anatomy-of-state-treason.html):

If you know in advance that you will be killing thousands of civilians; you have, attached to your actions, malice aforethought, or mens rea, aka intent.

Moreover, just pretend for the sake of argument that there is no way to kill the Hamas culprits other than via a ground invasion; why-oh-why would Israel throttle the supply of water, food and power to millions of Gazans, when Israel knows this will also kill thousands of civilians indirectly?

Israel has, sadly, squandered much of the goodwill generated by the heinous, diabolical, October 7 pogrom, executed by spawns of Satan.

BACKGROUND: “Hamas, Israel And The Anatomy Of State Treason

* Screen capture credit here:
https://www.strategiccriminaldefence.com/faq/mens-rea-vs-actus-rea/

UPDATE (10/21/023): Yes, this is refreshing via Josh Paul (even though I don’t share his support for other incursions and foreign-policy “moral compromises”)—I didn’t know there were people in our bureaucracy who could speak English, much less write it and reason in it.

Paul, who worked for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, has resigned from this Biden-staffed bureau, because of its policy of transferring lethal weapons to be used, invariably, against civilians in Gaza. Paul recounted in interviews how he had been instrumental in drafting a cessation to arms transfers under Biden’s new Conventional Arms Transfer policy, which allegedly reconsidered “weapons sales to countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over the civilian toll of the war in Yemen.”

It was the policy of Donald Trump, as this columnist’s warned, in 2018, through weapons supplies to the Saudis, to enable “our bosom buddies the Saudi’s” in their “barricading of Yemeni ports. No aid gets through her hermetically sealed ports. Yemenis are dying. Some Twitter followers twittered with joy at the sight of starving Yemeni babies, like this one. Oh well, Yemeni babies can be sinister.”

Whatever one’s political sympathies, as I wrote here above, “If you know in advance that you will be killing thousands of civilians; you have, attached to your actions, malice aforethought, or mens rea, aka intent.”

The same obtains if you are a third party, aiding and abetting the carnage that is collective punishment. These are natural, immutable laws. They attached to George Bush’s actions in Iraq. (https://www.ilanamercer.com/2002/09/why-so-many-americans-don-t-support-attacking-iraq/ The Hague ought to have long since nabbed him. They apply to the razing of Gaza following Hamas’ monstrous mass murder on October 7.

UPDATE III (8/8/023) Ukraine Destroyed On The Altar Of The Imploding, Morally and Fiscally Bankrupt American Empire

America, Bush, Canada, Debt, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Foreign Policy, Ilana Mercer, Republicans, Russia

WIN OR DIE, DUMMIES is what Ukrainians are being instructed by the US, its NATO marionettes and the treacherous leader Zelensky, who is protected by the aforementioned forces ~ilana

The depravity—the immorality—of Ukraine’s America-engineered existential reality … ~ilana

Four minutes and 21 seconds into his YouTube interview with Aaron Mate, John Mearsheimer, a utilitarian political scientist, says this: “Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, made it clear that Ukraine would not be admitted into NATO until it had prevailed in the conflict [with Russia].”

Mearsheimer addresses the purely pragmatic, utilitarian aspect of the reality into which Ukraine was thrust. It cannot win the war with Russia. Therefore, deduces Mearsheimer, Ukraine will not be brought into the NATO alliance.

True. This much we all knew.

WIN OR DIE, DUMMIES

UPDATE (8/3/023): This depravity—the immorality—of Ukraine’s America-engineered existential reality was seconded by one Dan Sullivan, Republican representative from Alaska.

Following a recent NATO Summit, which, naturally, determined that US stooge and puppet Ukraine would not be rewarded with NATO membership—the Fix News outpost, another fount of establishment deceit, entertained Sullivan for a comment.

Sullivan—with a demented grin you’d expect to see on a patient with end-stage syphilis (a career-destroying line I used on Genghis Bush in 2003)—offered that Ukraine has not won yet. The question was not Ukraine’s admission into NATO, said this Republican reptile; the question was winning against Russia.

WIN OR DIE, DUMMIES is what Ukrainians are being told by the US, its NATO marionettes and the treacherous leader Zelensky, who is protected by the aforementioned forces.

UPDATE III (8/8/023): August 7 was Joni Ernst’s time to make the fur fly. (Cynicism alert.) Ernst, Republican representative from Red Oak, Iowa, proves, in the end, that it is as Dr. Johnson said: “There is no settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea.” Neoconservative or neoliberal; louse or flea, a pest is a pest.

The words of this particular political pest were the as follows:

Once Republicans explain to us, Americans, the nature of the mission to Iraq, oops, Ukraine—yes, where have I heard such GOP Machiavellian talk before? Rhetorical—we The People will get behind the mission.

“Shock-‘n-awe of the old days,” said Ernst, will garner support for the war in Ukraine.

Oh, and, if this following cliche is new to you: Ernst thinks that our “adversaries do not fear us.” No worries, Ernst. On August 5, also on Fox News, Victor Davis Hanson critiques Obama for the few good things 44 did: returning to Iran monies stolen by the American government. Diplomacy with Russia.

VDH has been avidly cheering for the Ukrainian project—and seems unable to quiet his rhetoric about American foreign-policy Manifest Destiny. His first instinct was to support the Ukrainian endeavor and he holds the most mundane neoconservative views on Russia. Being Neocon, wrong and immoral earns America’s pundits plaudits aplenty.

The tête-à-tête between these two effetes—Fox News’ interchangeable anchor and Sullivan, archetypal Republican—revealed a tidbit that backs my longtime theorizing about Canada: That country is not too serious about tyranny. Canada makes noises about following Uncle Sam. It badly wants to be the USA when it grows up. But it always falls flat. Kudos. Thus, talk aside, Canada contributes minuscule sums to NATO.

In any case, the depravity—the immorality—of Ukraine’s America-engineered existential reality is that, the United States, via its NATO front, has used Ukraine, mercilessly dangling NATO membership before this poor nation, to attempt to dislodge Putin. Putin is a reactionary Russian patriot, natural ally of any sovereign, conservative nation-state. The radical American objective is to make Russia over in the image of America: an abiding Jacobin stronghold at heart.

UPDATE (8/4/023):  As this writer remarked in commentary about “America’s radical, foreign-policy Alinskyites, in March, 2021, “Certain national-conservative governments in East Europe should be natural allies to conservative policy makers, stateside, if such unicorns existed. Vladimir Putin’s, for example. Before his death, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, one of Russia’s bravest and most brilliant sons, praised Putin’s efforts to revive Russia’s traditional Christian and moral heritage. For example:

In October 2010, it was announced that The Gulag Archipelago would become required reading for all Russian high-school students. In a meeting with Solzhenitsyn’s widow, Mr. Putin described The Gulag Archipelago as ‘essential reading’: ‘Without the knowledge of that book, we would lack a full understanding of our country and it would be difficult for us to think about the future.’ …
If [only] the same could be said of the high schools of the United States. (Via The Imaginative Conservative.)

For a long while, the Russian president patiently tolerated America’s demented, anti-Russia monomania. And, as America sank into the quicksands of what Cons call “Cultural Marxism”I, since the get-go, have framed the new Western dispensation as anti-Whiteness—Putin’s inclinations have remained decidedly reactionary and traditionalist.

He prohibited public sexual evangelizing by LGBTQ activists. He comes down squarely on the side of the Russian Orthodox church, such as when vandals, the Pussy Riot whores, obscenely desecrated the cathedral of Christ the Savior. The Russian leader has also welcomed as refugees persecuted white South Africans, where America’s successive governments won’t even officially acknowledge that they’re under threat of extermination. Also, policies to stimulate Russian birthrates have been put in place by the conservative leader.

The command-and-control US Media have purged any news of peace talks with Russia. “Peace” is a dirty word in the Western Warfare State, for “war is the health of the state.” Ukraine, for its part, is led by a vainglorious fool. “Zelensky is a kept man, his flesh softer than sin under the khaki costume.” For all his Jewish-lineage boasts, Zelensky ought to know that,  “It’s biblical. “A leader who fails to haggle for the lives of his people is a failed leader.”

So, it has been ordained that Ukraine be destroyed on the alter of the imploding, degenerate, morally and fiscally bankrupt American Empire and its European zombie satellite states.

“The US is today running bigger deficits than ever.” According to gold bug Egon von Greyerz, “There is only one buyer of US debt – the Fed.” The last assertion is hard to verify, namely that nobody is now buying US debt. Nevertheless, this is entirely believable.

Articles Archive: https://www.ilanamercer.com/category/ukraine/

Mercer on Ukraine:

1. Neocons, Neolibs And NATO Inch Us Closer To Nuclear War With Russia, 01/29/2022: https://www.ilanamercer.com/2022/01/neocons-neolibs-nato-inch-us-closer-nuclear-war-russia/
2. Uncle Sam Still King Of All Invaders: Ukraine, Realpolitik And The West’s Failure: March 3, 2022 https://www.ilanamercer.com/2022/03/uncle-sam-still-king-invaders-ukraine-realpolitik-wests-failure/
3. True Story: Russia Finds WMD In Ukraine! March 10, 2022 https://www.ilanamercer.com/2022/03/true-story-russia-finds-wmd-ukraine/
4. It’s Biblical, Zelensky: A Leader Who Fails To Haggle For The Lives Of His People Has Failed https://www.ilanamercer.com/2022/03/biblical-zelensky-leader-fails-haggle-lives-people-failed/
5. U.S. Cancels Countries, Kills Ancient, Civilizing Concept Of Neutrality April 7, 2022 https://www.ilanamercer.com/2022/04/u-s-cancels-countries-kills-ancient-civilizing-concept-neutrality/
6. Ukraine’s Azov Battalion: Nazis Or Just Nationalists? May 12, 2022 https://www.ilanamercer.com/2022/05/ukraines-azov-battalion-nazis-or-just-nationalists/
7. “The D-Bomb, Realpolitik, Zelensky’s Self-Serving ‘Heroics’ & What ‘Mixed-Race’ Really MeansDecember 22, 2022 https://www.ilanamercer.com/2022/12/the-d-bomb-realpolitik-zelenskys-self-serving-heroics-what-mixed-race-really-means/
8. “Oh, What Wonderful Wars: The West’s Lying Warlords,” March 10, 2023

Mercer “Hard Truth” Video Podcasts on Ukraine. Please Subscribe:

https://rumble.com/c/HardTruthPodcast
https://rumble.com/vx058f-true-story-russia-finds-wmd-in-ukrainehtml
https://rumble.com/vw897h-russia-to-us-on-ukraine-pot.-kettle.-black..html
https://rumble.com/vtea18-neocons-neolibs-and-nato-inch-us-closer-to-nuclear-war-with-russia.html
“Ukraine’s Azov Brigade: Nazis Or Just Nationalists?”
“The US Plan To Bleed Russia Dry”
Steamrolled By The Abrams: Republican Cretins Swallow Classified-Doc Bait
Oh What Wonderful Wars: The West’s Lying Warlords”

* Image captured as screen picture, courtesy Latuff, 2022, Global Times, here

Twenty Years Ago: Dissident From Day One

Bush, Democrats, Elections, Iraq, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Republicans, The Establishment, War

To be branded Dissident from Day one and cancelled is untenable. Destructive. A career killer

LOOKING FOR mention in my own works of the remarkable Dennis Kucinich, I came across “BUSH’S 16 WORDS MISS THE BIG PICTURE” (July 16, 2003), one of many antiwar columns written at the time.

It still haunts. What passion (as Hillel, Jewish sage and genius, said, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?”). I believed in the power of pellucid prose and reason to persuade. Instead, I got cancelled from day one.

It’s easy to become a dissident when such a pose is trendy, and is struck once one has enjoyed 20 years of work in the Establishment.  To be branded Dissident from Day One and cancelled is untenable. Destructive. A career killer.

But then I did liken the “bring ’em on” grin on the face of Bush, beloved of most rightists back then, to the grin “on the face of a demented patient with end-stage syphilis.” LOL. Totally worth it. I think.

Reducing this administration’s single-minded will to war to an erroneous 16 words ignores the big picture. First came the decision to go to war. The misbegotten illegality that was this administration’s case for war followed once the decision to go to war had already been made. The administration’s war wasn’t about a few pieces that did not gel in an otherwise coherent framework; it wasn’t about an Iraq that was poised to attack the U.S. with germs and chemicals rather than with nukes; it was about a resigned, hungry, economic pariah that was a sitting duck for the power-hungry American colossus.

By all means, dissect and analyze what, in September 2002, I called the “lattice of lies” leveled at Iraq: the uranium from Africa, the aluminum tubes from Timbuktu, the invisible “meetings” with al-Qaida in Prague, an al-Qaida training camp that existed under Kurdish—not Iraqi—control, as well as the alleged weaponized chemical and biological stockpiles and their attendant delivery systems that inspectors doubted were there and which never materialized. But then assemble the pieces and synthesize the information, will you?

Do what the critical mind must do. The rational individual, wedded to reality, reason, and objective, non-partisan truth saw Bush’s sub-intelligent case for war for what it was. He saw Bush as the poster boy for ‘the degeneracy of manner and morals’ which James Madison warned war would bringthe same ‘bring ’em on’ grin one can also observe on the face of a demented patient with end-stage syphilis. The rational individual saw all this, and understood that when Madison spoke of ‘war as the true nurse of executive aggrandizement,’ he was speaking of the disposition of this dictator.

AND

…. Members of the media aren’t capable of much more than fragmenting and atomizing information. Integrating facts into a conceptual understanding is certainly not what Howard Fineman, Chris Matthew’s anointed analyst, and the brain trust on MSNBC’s “Hardball” does. To disguise his pedestrian politicking, Fineman discussed who, at what time in the afternoon, as well as when in the estrus cycle of the next-door cow, did an official put the infamous 16 words about nukes and Niger on the president’s desk. That ought to make a nation already bogged down in concrete bits of disconnected data see the forest for the trees, wouldn’t you say? … “BUSH’S 16 WORDS MISS THE BIG PICTURE” (July 16, 2003)

https://www.ilanamercer.com/category/war/page/2/
https://www.ilanamercer.com/category/war/

Dennis Kucinich was always there, along for the lost battle ….

THUS, it’s a bad idea for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to tout Mr. Kucinich, his newly nominated campaign manager, as progressive.

Kucinich, like the great Southern senator and gentleman Robert Byrd, RIP (who also greatly opposed Obama’s constitutional usurpations), is noted for voting AGAINST the detestable Democrats and the GOP in opposing the US war machine and the executive dictatorship.

 

UPDATE (3/15): Ukraine: Republicans Revert To The Neoconservative Mean

Bush, Europe, Free Markets, Iran, Iraq, Neoconservatism, Republicans, Trade, War

Conservatism has tragically and unforgivably reverted to the neoconservative mean. Just as in 2016, 14 years after the invasion of Iraq, rose a presidential candidate against Genghis Bush and that man’s destruction of Iraq—in ten years time, perhaps, the GOP will field a presidential candidate who’ll quit moralizing and demonizing; will strive fiercely to negotiate and accommodate, won’t alienate and sanction, and will trade, trade, trade.

But it might be too late by then for realpolitik.

The Republicans are pushing for war and that no-fly zone. They are admonishing Biden for his so-called weakness—for that is how they frame avoiding a nuclear war with Russia. The War Street Journal has only rebuke for Biden’s policy of “containment against Russia.” On Fox News it’s rah-rah for war (i. e., a no-fly zone over Ukraine) all day long. The female journos and pundits, especially, choose to use incendiary verbiage, pregnant with provocation, such as “a red line”; “this was a red line for Obama… will Biden consider it a red line.. blah-blah.”

Translated it’s, “Come on big boy; sock it to Putin.” War porn.

Rand Paul is no Ron Paul. But at least the senator from Kentucky has berated the forever-war, dastardly GOP for rejecting diplomacy with Iran, the mention of which has not even crossed their lips with respect to Russia.

UPDATE (3/15): War always brings the neoconservative to the fore. Victor Davis Hanson is one. A nice man, but never-the-less, a neoconservative, front-and-center in the enunciation of consummate neoconservative abominations known as “The Bush Doctrine,” which was responsible for the noxious bifurcation knows as, “If you are not with us, you are against us.”

The West has been caught sleeping and … an opportunistic dictator … saw a chance and … took it just like he did in 2014. 

Neocons love sanctions, which are as useless in achieving political ends as they are ruthless in their effects on the most vulnerable. As far as their ultimate outcome—embargoed are counterproductive. “Nicholas Mulder, assistant professor in the history department of Cornell University in New York, is the author of ‘The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War’ (2022)'”:

Sanctions alone have a poor record of halting military adventures. During the 20th century, only three out of 19 attempts to use sanctions as a policy to impede war have been successful: two of these were the work of the League of Nations. It nipped in the bud incipient border wars in the Balkans, between Yugoslavia and Albania in 1921 and between Greece and Bulgaria in 1925. The other successful use of sanctions was American financial pressure on sterling, which forced an end to Britain’s Egyptian military expedition in the Suez war of 1956.